BURN BLACK Blog

24Aug/100

Lest We Forget…

Today marks the 3 year anniversary of Sophie Lancaster, the young girl who, along with her boyfriend were beaten to a pulp and left for dead by a gang of delinquent and pissed Chavs purely because they looked different.  I remember it being in the news at the time and it made me really sad that someone had had their life viciously taken from them just because she looked "different".  I've been into alternative subcultures since I was 11 or 12 and I've made a lot of similar friends in those 20 years.  I've lost count of the amount of times I've heard of and/or encounted grief with no other reason bar what fashion or music myself or friends prefer to follow.

As a result of her daughter's death I really admire the stance that Sophie's Mum has taken as a result of losing her daughter.  It really is an excellent example of trying to turn a negative into a positive.  The S.O.P.H.I.E. Foundation was set up by her and it's aims are to provide work shops that challenge prejudice and intolerance towards people from alternative subcultures and is also currently campaigning to have the UK Hate Crime legislation extended to include people from “alternative subcultures” or “Lifestyle and Dress”.  If you want to help support the foundation you can do so in many ways.  You can make a donation or if you prefer, buy a t-shirt or wristband here.  Illamasqua also have a pencil eyeliner dedicated to Sophie which promises to donate £3 from every purchase to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

The following video is called 'Dark Angel' and was commissioned by Illamasqua.  It's by Fursy Teyssier whose work I love.

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23Aug/100

Meat Free Mondays #4.

There hasn't been one of these blog entries in a while and the simple explanation is purely because I'm no longer vegetarian.  Yes I do feel guilty for not sticking with it (I really did try) and lecturing won't make me feel any better either (I despise Veggie lecturers / PETA morons - I always have).  I will probably go back to vegetarianism at some point as it seems to be the dietary trend that I've subconsciously followed since I was 12 or 13 (where I'll be veggie for anything between 4-6 years then I'll start eating meat again for a year or so and then switch back for another 4-6 years).  It still works out that I've been veggie for over a third of my life (I'm 31) and that still, in my opinion has to count for something.

Anyway moving on.  My boyfriend and I made this relatively simple and delicious pasta dish recently.  Super easy, super tasty and relatively cheap as chips to make.  I was tempted to say that this would be a nice summer dish but our British summer seems to have ended, as usual, prematurely (booooo).

Fusilli Mediterranean Style

Ingredients for 4 persons:

*  320 grams of fusilli pasta.
*  200 grams of buffalo mozzarella (we just used normal mozzarella).
*  30 pachino tomatoes (we substituted these with cherry tomatoes).
*  2 cloves of garlic.
*  4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
*  A handful of minced fresh parsley.
*  A handful of capers.
*  Some red pepper (we think the chef used crushed chilli flakes in the video so this is what we used).
*  The juice of 2 lemons.
*  A pinch of salt.

Hope you enjoy.

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21Aug/102

Owch…

Today I went to Triplesix to get more lasering done.  I used to have a 3/4 Japanese sleeve which I've slowly been removing over the last 2 years or so.  It shouldn't have taken so long really but I hate lasering and find it really painful so I've been avoiding sessions like the plague.  Emla cream helps a lot however.  My arm currently looks horrible, all raised and angry looking.  Hopefully when today's session calms itself down I'll not need that much more doing. *phew*

Here's some photo's of the lasering that I've had so far.  The last photo was taken today.

2Aug/100

Music Monday: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – The Dead Flag Blues.

This is purely because I finally managed to pick up the relatively rare 1997 edition of the Godspeed You! Black Emperor album F?A?? and it arrived Friday just gone.  It comes with the train crushed penny etc.  I'm pretty chuffed that this is now in my possession, as is Lemmy by the looks of it.

1Aug/100

M.A.C. & Disney: Venomous Villains Collection.

I really really can't wait for this collection.  I demand all of the Maleficent eye shadows and nail varnishes.  Much better than the Hello Kitty collection from last year in my opinion.  I like the fact the colour shades are based on ones used by Disney in the original films the villains appeared in.  My only gripe is that there seems to be no Ursula colours.  I would have loved to have seen some murky oceanic Cthulhu/BP oil slick shades involved.

My favourite coffee mug has Maleficent on it.  Credit where it's due, she makes one hell of an entrance/exit.

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19Jul/101

Music Monday #2. Nine Inch Nails – “La Mer”.

This song has been stuck in my head for most of today.

13Jul/100

Dizzy Graffiti…

I spotted this piece of stencil graffiti whilst on my travels today. I loved the Dizzy games as a kid. I used to have the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +2.  It was my very first computer/video games console.  Operation Wolf and Ghostbusters were other favourites of mine.

5Jul/100

Music Monday #1 : Neurosis & Jarboe – Within

The Neurosis & Jarboe album is awesome.

The rest of the weeks ear candy:

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1Jun/100

A week of debauchery…

At the beginning of May I went on a week long adventure which saw me in Leeds, London, Glasgow and of course my hometown of Sunderland.

The trip to Leeds was purely for Deathfest which was a rather enjoyable day out.  Discovered a band there called Volition who I rather dig and also got to see Negura Bunget "Post Sol and Hupogrammos".  Negura Bunget are still excellent, still atmospheric but there is a certain magic lacking since their departure.  The new Negura Bunget album came out the other month and I'm patiently waiting for this limited edition box set to arrive from Transylvania.  I'm a sucker for fancy packaging.

I went to London for a few days to essentially catch up with some friends and to finally see Hole, who I've been a huge fan of since I was about 15 years old.  Lots of good food (I love Bodeans), lots of singing and lots of shiny new hair courtesy of Angel Emma (I got some camouflage coloured extensions put in amongst my normal hair). As you can see from the photo's I'm not a veggie any more either.  I may explain why in a later post.

L to R: Me having a snout on Emma's patio, The warning sign in the Crobar and Gumbo in Bodean's, Soho.

L to R:  Pulled & Burnt End Pork at Bodeans (Needless to say I couldn't move afterwards and I didn't finish it all - boooooo), Ms Courtney Love @ Brixton Academy and my first ever Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Later on in the same week I went up to Glasgow to see KISS with a friend and was blown away.  Best gig of my life hahahahahha.  Paul Stanley is the man.  Check out the goofy video too (I never said I could sing either).

Awesome times.

31May/100

BFF Tats…

For a while my best friend and I have been meaning to get BFF tats and on Saturday we finally did it.

The quote is from the film "Singles". We were originally going to get it done in same typeface from the film but thought it would be nicer to just write it on each other. Pretty weird seeing your handwriting permanently on your best friends arm.  Muchos thanks to Demon at Triplesix for putting up with us both and our insanity.